-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Utah multimillionaire Jon Huntsman Sr. said Friday the Salt Lake City cancer center that bears his name will get a $ 100 million addition , half of which is coming from his family .

The 220,000-square-foot addition will be used to find cures for childhood cancers , and will double the Huntsman Cancer Institute 's research space , said the 76-year-old businessman and philanthropist , father of former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. .

Patients who are treated at the cancer center are teamed up with cancer specialists as well as researchers who are trying to find better ways to treat and , hopefully , cure them .

The new laboratories will be used to further study genetic childhood cancers and cancers that affect families , including the three leading causes of disease death in children : leukemia , sarcoma and brain cancer .

`` The only way to make progress on cancer is to keep delving deeper and deeper in the research technology . '' says Huntsman .

Cancer claims about 550,000 lives a year , something Americans have accepted as a way of life . But they would not accept losing 550,000 soldiers on the battlefield each year , he adds .

`` The private sector should do more ; the government should do more , '' says Huntsman .

Huntsman says he wants to die broke because `` you ca n't spend money after you die . ''

His family `` has put about $ 400 million into the cancer center , and we 've raised about a billion dollars for cancer research -LRB- overall -RRB- , '' he says .

For the latest expansion , `` the family is putting about half of it up , '' he says . He raised the rest of the funds from donors like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . The Utah Legislature and other major hospital groups in the area also contributed .

Four-time cancer survivor gives back

Huntsman 's riches grew out of a small plastics company he founded in the early 1970s .

`` A small team that worked with me -- we invented the Big Mac hamburger container , '' he says .

After selling that company , he founded Huntsman Chemical Corp. . But long before he became a billionaire , Huntsman believed in spreading his wealth .

`` There 's just a certain joy in your heart to be able to help somebody else -- even when you 're struggling , '' he says .

`` When my wife and I made only $ 300 a month as a naval officer right out of college and I had debts to pay , we always gave $ 50 a month away to charity in addition to our tithing , '' he says . `` It was just something that in my heart I 've always believed , that if you are generous and help others , you 'll be blessed in your own life . And more importantly , it 's just the right thing to do . ''

Huntsman spent more than a decade on the Forbes billionaire list , but he 's fallen off it due to his many contributions -- something he 's fine with .

So far , he and his family have donated more than $ 1.2 billion to thousands of charities and individuals in the United States and abroad , and he 's dedicated his life and fortune to curing cancer .

That dedication goes back decades . Huntsman 's mother , who taught him about the importance of giving , died from cancer , as did his father and stepmother .

Huntsman himself has also battled cancer , and has survived prostate cancer , mouth cancer and two types of skin cancer .

According to the National Cancer Institute , one or two children develop cancer for every 10,000 children in the United States . While progress has been made in treating and curing children with cancer , it 's still the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children ages 1 to 14 .

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The Huntsman Cancer Center is getting a $ 100 million addition

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The Huntsman family is putting up about half , says Jon Huntsman Sr. .

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The expansion will be used to research and treat childhood cancers